Curtin Malaysia petroleum engineering students present project theses to industry experts

Miri – 5 June 2017 – Six final-year petroleum engineering undergraduates of the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Malaysia (Curtin Malaysia) recently presented their final-year project theses to an expert panel comprising five industrial engineers from Shell Malaysia and Petronas Carigali Sarawak Operations and five Curtin Malaysia lecturers in petroleum engineering.

Their presentations were part of ‘Eureka Speak 2017’, a student-driven project presentation event organised the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Curtin Malaysia Student Chapter with support from the Department of Petroleum Engineering at the university’s Faculty of Engineering and Science.

The event, attended by over 30 staff and students of the Faculty of Engineering and Science, provided a platform for the students to give technical presentations and garner expert comment on their final-year projects related to the oil and gas industry.

One of the panellists, Shell Lifecycle Well Integrity Consultant Oluyinka Jimoh, said he was glad to assist the students in such event and was greatly impressed by the presentations given by the undergraduates.

Among the topics theses presented were ‘Feasibility Study of Aquifer Pump Off’, ‘Evaluation of Artifical Lift System in an Oil Well’, ‘An Approach to Prevent Mud Losses in Highly Permeable Zones’, ‘Rapid and Easy Approach for the Reduction of Graphene Oxide by Formamidinesulfinic Acid’, ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Erosion Activity on Three-Phase (Gas-Liquid-Solid) Flow in Piper’ and ‘Effect of Salinity on Wettability of Rock and Trapping Mechanism’.

In thanking the SPE Curtin Malaysia Student Chapter and organising chairperson and petroleum engineering undergraduate Ong Wei Jun for organising the event, Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department Associate Professor Sharul Sham Dol said Eureka Speak 2017 was an excellent way for the students to get feedback from industry experts and academics on the viability of their final-year research projects.

Meanwhile, Ong, who is also the secretary of SPE Curtin Malaysia Student Chapter, said events such as Eureka Speak 2017 are an important part of the student experience at Curtin Malaysia, helping them build critical skills and acquire additional knowledge in research and current technologies that will give them the added edge in their future careers.

In addition to Associate Professor Sharul and Jimoh, she thanked petroleum engineering lecturers Dr. Henry Foo, Dr. Raoof Gholami, Dr. Hisham Khaled, Dr. Tan Inn Shi and Mian Umer, as well as Petronas Carigali representatives Vinod Chandra Sayakaran, Sathiyamoorthi Balakrishnan, Robin Keuh Jing Zhe and Daniel Latiff, for their support.

One of the undergraduate students giving his presentation before the panel of experts and audience.